I have 3 Android devices from Google and all run Chrome beautifully. Maybe you need modern hardware for it to work well? I'm new to Android so I don't know. I love Chrome though..

Galaxy Nexus isn't really outdated. I'll admit it doesn't have the latest and greatest CPU, but dual core A9 OMAP-4460 at 1.3 GHz is not bad at all. The stock browser just is more fluid for me on this phone.

He wasn't even running Chrome in the 'Desktop Mode' which can be activated from the Chrome drop down menu. Doing so would have changed the user agent to the PC version of Chrome hence﻿ making the experience PC-like just like on the Surface. Else all websites will be rendered in﻿ mobile/tablet format with lower resolution images. Chrome on Android by default uses the mobile/tablet user agent instead of the PC one. IE10 on the surface does things differently, websites won't be 'aware' that the Surface is a Tablet since the UA is that of the PC version of IE.

I don't think any of my Android devices even have a browser called "Broswer". Thinks that's because they are all from Google? lol

Well, yeah. There's no doubt that Google wants to move towards Chrome as it's default browser, and they should. It brings the browser in line with their desktop offerings and adds a lot of features that way. But Chrome is also definitely heavier than the stock Browser. One newer devices, the power can make up for the difference which is why you're starting to seem them push it, but I could see people with slower devices having more trouble.